To avoid a sweep at Citizens Bank Park, the Nats will need to beat Roy Halladay.

PHILADELPHIA — We've discussed here before the idea of the "reverse lock," the match-up that looks so lopsided toward one side that it practically ensures the opposite side will triumph. Think Levale Speigner vs. Johan Santana.

Well, tonight's match-up at Citizens Bank Park is so lopsided, it appears to even defy the reverse lock theory. Roy Halladay (4-0, 0.84 ERA in four starts vs. Nats last two years) vs. John Lannan (0-9, 5.80 ERA in 12 career starts vs. Phillies). In Philadelphia, where the Nationals have lost six straight and 29 of 38. With a lineup missing Ryan Zimmerman and perhaps others due to injury. (Neither Michael Morse nor Rick Ankiel is starting, we'll find out soon why.)

But they do play these games for a reason, and stranger things have happened. Probably. OK, maybe not.

Didn't we have a game that was 2 hours and 2 minutes the other night – the shortest game in mlb this season? Who wants to lay odds that this one beats it? Maybe Doc will pitch with one hand tied behind his back? Maybe he will pitch with the opposite hand? I say let's get it over with and go on to – oh, wait – it's Florida isn't it? Never mind.

Let's please remember it's a 162-game season. And (nearly) everyone gets 50 wins and 50 losses. We will have some set of future Brewers and Giants match-ups to enjoy before the leaves fall from the trees.Let's hope the reverse lock shows up (C. Lee would have been a better choice, alas).

NatsJack in Florida said… Steve M…. Thanks for the invite. I just spent the Mets series and Friday's Giants game in DC. Got to spend the Mets series in two adjoining suites as a guest of the Mets. Coming back up for the O's series in late June the week end after the Cards series so I'll have to pass. May 5, 2011 3:16 PM ________________________________Will you be there on June 19th? Sorry you can't meet SteveM and me and a few others. Mark'd, BrettH, NatsJack, Anon8(MichaelLG) call me. 202-716-8500

Hey no need for us to erect a statue to Werth; he's a living statue at the plate right now.I wish he would stop looking for walks and swing the darn bat.C'mon Nats, get those bats moving, even on this tough night.

Phillies announcers said they heard rumblings about Nats fans upset over Werth looking at third strikes. They said we will get used to it, it is part of his m.o.I can not believe Gary is retiring already. It has only been 22 years, though he did make it clear that working under Yow made 15 years feel like a lifetime. The feud continues!

I'm voting Cora bats lead off. For as long as we have him, anyway.For the moaners, just think back to two seasons ago, where we'd only won about two and half games by now. Things are better! They just are.Go Nats!

Now that we're through the lineup once, and everyone has seen a first pitch fastball for a strike, can we have someone actually try to HIT that ball the next time up? (Instead of watching it sail gracefully by?)Just a thought…

I've been pretty happy with Riggleman and this team so far and can't understand all this doom and gloom. And the Trolls need to go to the WaPo or something. Let's look at reality, the Nats best player is out and their line-up is pretty anemic even when he is in there. (Dunn's bat is sorely missed.) I know that statistically Batting protection cannot be proven but I think it matters psychologically to these players. I believe a big bat to anchor this lineup would probably help everyone else relax a bit up there and at least approach some sort of replacement level ability with the lumber. But I can't really gripe; they play hard and win some. And they might flirt with .500 for more of this season. The vets are also better than I thought they would be. Ankiel and Nix in particular. Ankiel for his overall game, which is not as bad as Nyjer's was last season. I mean ideally Ankiel is your 4th outfielder but I think the Nats brain trust already knows that. And Nix so far has surprised. He might be a better solution in LF than MM. Anyway, when I look at this team, I wouldn't say they are overachieving, but I would say that they are playing at the level they should. As for the Frillies, they are just a better team. Tip your cap to them. If the Nats steal a game that's great, but I'm not the miracle expecting type. I'm more interested in how they match up with the Fish and the Mets to see improvement….

Grandstander: Could you please try to stop dropping F-bombs on here? You've done it a couple of times this week, and I've gotten complaints from multiple readers. I know we're mostly adults here, and I let some obscenities slide by. But your usages have been particularly egregious, and I'm sure most everyone around here would appreciate if you didn't do it. Thanks for understanding.

Mark-I think Lannan might actually become a better pitcher over all if he knew he would never have to face these guys again. I sort of ignored the info that the Phillies had their best April ever. Guess they really are pretty good.Nataholic well said.

Honestly had no idea I'd have to censor myself on a blog about baseball. But it's your site, so I'll try to tone it down. Just a question though. What is and is not acceptable language? Can I say Riggleman manages like an *ss? Jason Werth can't get a hit for s**t? Is it just the hard F or is it anything?

Well, it's now a 5 run lead, and with their anemic situational hitting, the Nats might as well be behind by 15 runs. I'm starting to doze off. Maybe it's just Bobby Carpenter's voice. Or maybe it's FP. Or maybe it's both of them. Good night, all.

Grandstander: I don't feel like I need to set any hard and fast rules, or come up with a George Carlin-style "7 Words You Can't Type on Nats Insider." Just use your best judgment. I guess the best guideline would be to try to keep to to PG-13 language, not R.Thanks, I appreciate it.

When can the John Lannan experiment end? Why won't they just cut ties with this guy and bring up Detwiler, or anyone else? This guy is not a Major League pitcher. He would not start on any other team. I'm willing to bet that when he throws the ball, it makes the same "thud" sound as when you put a ball through a JUGS machine. Dude is not good.

Please stop the bring up Detwiler to the Nats starting rotation campaign. His numbers at Syracuse are not stellar, and he probably needs to be a reliever if he is anything at the major league level. If someone needs to be replaced it should be Maya that does the replacing, IMO.

Feeble. Anemic. Ineffectual. Now come the encomiums about the superiority of Phillies pitching. Our TV guys even said their bullpen was awesome. It's the same pattern: who.ever.pitches.against.Washington.is.Cy.Young.Two stupid, needless points on our latest lost cause:1. The Nationals need to be quiet next year, from spring training forward. All their verbal hype means nothing (see Redskins, Wizards, Caps, Georgetown, Maryland).2. The Phillies will dominate us for the next decade. They have a superior organization, ownership, management, scouting, and player development. We are hype, they are real. Get very, very used to it.

The Pitching this round of the rotation is lowering itself to the hitter's standards. Last rotation great 3/5 though this one not so good.My complaint of the series is with the advance scout for the Nats.Coming into this series in the last 10 games Ibanez goes 0 for 34. In these three games he goes 8 for 12. What did the advance scout tell McCatty and Riggleman Ibonez was getting out with. Id he told them, and the pitchers just didn't pitch there that is one thing, but I am guessing the pitchers couldn't have screwed up that much.Or am I barking up the wrong tree, and they don't send advance scouts out with as many games that are on TV (I am watching Colorado and Arizona as I type) that they do not send scouts any longer.Well since we messed up these three games, we need to sweep the marlins to get back to even.

Another Nats-Phillies series to forget…the optimist in me saw some better swings from LaRoche and Espy the last two days, though. We miss Josh Johnson in Florida this time around – will that be enough?

Hey Mark:Thanks for the comeuppance to that guy who demonstrates the cleverness of a 13-year-old.Here's tonight's silver lining, folks. Harper hit his 7th homer. In 25 games he has 19 runs scored, 23 RBIs, 5 steals and a tidy .357 average.In the words of that famed scout, Bruce Springsteen:"At the end of every hard-earned daypeople find some reason to believe."

That one statistic which is being thrown around a lot lately (BABIP), is .409 for Detwiler this season in AAA. Mean anything?Terrible terrible performance all around in this series. Nothing worked, pitchers could not live up to their expectations, hitters continued struggling, defense was not the bright spot either. More than manager or hitting coach, I think these failures are a mental thing. To be honest, I just feel this team has potential to be better than it was in this series.